hich in other times was so familiar to
her ears had been addressed to her in vain. Connecticut is here, and
she comes, I doubt not, in the spirit of ROGER SHERMAN, whose name
with our very children has become a household word, and who was in
life the embodiment of that sound practical sense which befits the
great lawgiver and constructer of governments. Rhode Island, the land
of ROGER WILLIAMS, is here, one of the two last States, in her
jealousy of the public liberty, to give in her adhesion to the
Constitution, and among the earliest to hasten to its rescue. The
great Empire State of New York, represented thus far but by one
delegate, is expected daily in fuller force to join in the great work
of healing the discontents of the times and restoring the reign of
fraternal feeling. New Jersey is also here, with the memories of the
past covering her all over. Trenton and Princeton live immortal in
story, the plains of the last incrimsoned with the hearts blood of
Virginia's sons. Among her delegation I rejoice to recognize a gallant
son of a signer of the immortal Declaration which announced to the
world that thirteen Provinces had become thirteen independent and
sovereign States. And here, too, is Delaware, the land of the BAYARDS
and the RODNEYS, whose soil at Brandywine was moistened by the blood
of Virginia's youthful MONROE. Here is Maryland, whose massive columns
wheeled into line with those of Virginia in the contest for glory,
and whose state house at Annapolis was the theatre of the spectacle of
a successful Commander, who, after liberating his country, gladly
ungirthed his sword, and laid it down upon the altar of that country.
Then comes Pennsylvania, rich in revolutionary lore, bringing with her
the deathless names of FRANKLIN and MORRIS, and, I trust, ready to
renew from the belfry of Independence Hall the chimes of the old bell,
which announced _Freedom_ and _Independence_ in former days. All hail
to North Carolina! with her Mecklenberg Declaration in her hand,
standing erect on the ground of her own probity and firmness in the
cause of public liberty, and represented in her attributes by her
MACON, and in this assembly by her distinguished son at no great
distance from me. Four daughters of Virginia also cluster around the
council board on the invitation of their ancient mother--the eldest,
Kentucky, whose sons, under the intrepid warrior ANTHONY WAYNE, gave
freedom of settlement to the territory of her siste